Immigration Law 101
New immigration judges are getting less than a month of training before they’re tasked with deciding migrants’ fates, and have been told that asylum should be granted only in rare circumstances, Celine Castronuovo reports.
Immigration judges are Justice Department employees and include military lawyers with six-month appointments. An early analysis found that temporary military judges who joined in October issued relief to migrants at lower rates than other judges in November and December, according to Mobile Pathways data.
A DOJ spokesperson defended the training, saying the previous administration forced immigration courts to implement “de facto amnesty.” Read More
See Also:
- Government Lawyer in ICE Case Tells Judge: ‘This Job Sucks’
- Trump Mandatory Detention Policy Appears to Split Fifth Circuit
- Appeals Judge ‘Troubled’ by Government Stance on Deportations
Chilly Peace Talks
Negotiators are supposed to spend today and tomorrow in trilateral meetings between the US, Russia, and Ukraine.
Those talks in Abu Dhabi come after President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to his request for a weeklong halt to strikes on Kyiv and other cities because of the freezing winter conditions, and that week turned out to last less than seven days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the deployment of hundreds of drones attacking energy infrastructure will have consequences at the negotiating table. “The Russian army exploited the US proposal to briefly halt strikes not to support diplomacy, but to stockpile missiles and wait until the coldest days of the year,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X. Read More
Also Read:
- Ukrainians Defy Russia’s Attempts to Freeze Them Into Submission
- Iran Wants US Talks Moved to Oman, Limited to Nuclear File
Looking West
Ties to the Trump administration have been driving growth for Ballard Partners. That got Andrew Oxford and Kate Ackley interested in looking at how the lobbying firm is doing in a very blue legislative environment.
They found that clients Ballard represents in Washington, including Amazon and UnitedHealthcare, are also using the firm in Sacramento — where its managing partner is Anthony Williams, formerly legislative affairs secretary for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Read More about the company and its possible expansion plans.
Driverless Lobbying
We’ll call this a healthy increase. Lobbying by makers of driverless cars, and their trade association, together logged a quarterly jump of 50% in their advocacy spending, Zach Williams reports.
The extra lobbying muscle comes as Congress drafts a surface transportation reauthorization that could accelerate—or limit—adoption of the technology.
Issues around autonomous vehicles also attracted lobbying attention from organized labor, auto insurers, research universities, advocates for disabled people, and more.
Executives from the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, Waymo, and Tesla will testify today at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Read More
Workforce Check-Up
Hiring at US companies rose in December after dropping the previous month. Updated data due out today will show whether that was the start of an upward trend.
Though higher on the whole, the job picture varied by sector, with education and health services employment up while payrolls declined in professional services and manufacturing.
The numbers come from the payroll data of approximately 400,000 U.S. business clients of ADP. That covers more than 26 million private-sector employees.
See Also: US Farmer Sentiment Tumbles on Concerns Over Lost Crop Exports
Back to Work
One group of laborers due back at their workplaces today are federal employees, after a short-lived partial government shutdown ended with the House passing and Trump signing a funding package he negotiated with Senate Democrats.
That package, which funded most agencies for the rest of the fiscal year, also included another reprieve on mass layoffs by the administration. Homeland Security was funded only through the end of next week, however, as talks continue about restrictions on immigration enforcement.
Today’s BGOV Budget makes clear many Hill Republicans see those negotiations as happening between the White House and the Democrats. But yesterday’s House vote showed the divisions over the budget deal, and Congress Tracker this morning looks at how Democratic leaders in the House and Senate plan to work together.
Before You Go
Sen. McConnell Hospitalized Last Night Over Flu-Like Symptoms
Senator
New US Audit Board Leaders Have a Track Record Gutting Agencies
A pair of Trump administration officials who will soon serve on the US audit board advanced the president’s regulatory rollback agenda that has slashed spending and hollowed out federal agencies.
Trump Meets Top Georgia Senate Hopeful as Endorsement Awaits
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) is meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss his Senate bid, according to two sources familiar with planning.
Trump Gold Card Is Unlawful Pay-to-Play Scheme, Suit Says
The Trump administration’s gold card program allowing ultra wealthy immigrants to obtain permanent residency in the US with a $1 million payment is unlawful, a university faculty group argues in a new lawsuit.
Fed Governor Miran Steps Down From White House CEA Role
DOJ Approves Release of Chicago Border Patrol Shooting Evidence
Federal prosecutors won’t entirely oppose the public release of video and other evidence related to a woman’s shooting by Customs and Border Patrol in Chicago last year, court records show.
Trump Administration Eyes 10-Year Extension of Cybersecurity Law
The Trump administration prefers a 10-year extension of a law that helps information sharing about cybersecurity threats between companies and the federal government.
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